Here's one...

http://daily.hotpads.com/hotpads_daily/images/2007/10/09/zune.jpg

I &heart; hyphenation

I think it's lazy.
Kids today.

Lazy? Maybe unless you work with languages with significantly greater average word length, such as German, where it may simply be necessary (and is also maybe less frowned upon; not that it is necessarily considered pretty).
Of course it's necessary to consider what to hyphenate where and how, but I don't think hyphenation is generally something that needs to be avoided.

And cheap.
Saves the bother of searching for a suitable condensed face to "fit the bill", and of purchasing it.
Slackers.

here's another example i saw recently (from http://www.culturelabel.com/digital-museum/income-generation-arts-museum...)

It just occurred to me which one I was most disagreeable to when I saw it:

Gatorade.
http://www.pepreinvent.com/download/gatorade/logos/ShineOn_logo_low_res.jpg
http://www.pepreinvent.com/download/gatorade/logos/NoExcuses_logo_low_re...
http://www.pepreinvent.com/download/gatorade/logos/GatoradeTigerFocusLog...
http://www.pepreinvent.com/download/gatorade/logos/BeTough_logo_low_res.jpg

They break excuses into exc/uses. Uses is a word for crying out loud! And tou/gh?
I just don't get it.

I think the whole idea behind it (at least the Gatorade ones) is playing off of what you're pointing out, evanbrog. This representation is confusing at first, thus it grabs our attention. We end up looking/reading/interpreting it more than just your average poster, and that is the intent (I think.)

Trendy. I remember ranting about grunge typography when it came out. Now it is dated.

This too will pass.

I suppose you're right, Steve. Well, you have to be. And not to disparage my country-folk too greatly, but let's face it--America (which is where I've seen a lot of this advertised) isn't the sharpest knife in the country drawer. There's still illiteracy. I imagine to those people this is really annoying--considering the words are not even breaking for syllabic nuances, just for visual effect. Plus, Gatorade doesn't even use the grammatical symbol for a line break--the hyphen. Good luck to our immigrants as well.

Certainly debates over whether it works, who cares--it sells, won't be solved. Maybe Gatorade needs to grab my attention. But a booklet for "Commercial Opportunities for Museums and Cultural Institutions?" I digress somewhat, maybe the title "Intelligent Naivety" does it for the same reason I did. But I'm positive there are many more examples out there that have done this just because it's trendy, as Don put it.

I also agree with steve.acres on how it can be quite attention grabbing and people tend to want to figure out its meaning. In saying this, it's effectiveness will quickly wear off when over used.

It will pass, like any good trend.